The ecology movement (huh–what’s that?), just one of many things happening at the end of the sixties, running into and through the seventies. One of the things that appealed to me about Buddhism when I began the practice is that it recognizes the interrelationship of self and environment. Ecology is the holistic comprehension of how [...]
OK, he calls it a one-man play, adapted from his book, but I prefer to call it a road show. Mike Lisagor did a fine job of conveying the life of a buddha as his book does. Playing on the title (Romancing the Stone) of the Michael Douglas/Kathleen Turner movie of (20?) years ago, Lisagor [...]
No, the Dalai Lama isn’t mad at the Pope; that was just to grab your attention. The Pope is visiting America–Washington, DC in fact. The Dalai Lama is upset with China at it’s treatment of Tibet. But they do have something in common. They were both chosen by adherents to lead major religions.
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Forty years ago today, shots rang out in Memphis, killing the Reverend Martin Luther King. I was in Hawaii that day, on R&R from Vietnam. I returned to my unit in Bearcat, the 9th Infantry Division basecamp 25 miles east of Saigon after the riots had spread across America. Things were not much more wonderful [...]
Hyperbole is a customary part of politics. But calling Bill Richardson a Judas for endorsing Obama is way over the top. Carville defends his commentary in an op ed today by asserting, essentially, that Richardson fails to show sufficient appreciation for the Clintons making him the man he is today. Firstly, it was Bill, not Hillary that [...]
The full text of the 2008 Peace Proposal of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) President Daisaku Ikeda is now available at the official SGI website. Ikeda reprises concerns he raised in recent proposals regarding the unilateral use of force and the problem of fundamentalism: The unhinged march of finance-centered globalization has produced a world riven by disparities [...]
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It occurs to me only now that I don’t have a category “Race” on this blog. Perhaps it’s because I have been living so long in the “post-race era” as some in the media now refer to this time in America. More than 27 years ago my African-American wife and I were married. In all those years, [...]
Check out the new (and vastly improved) SGI-USA website. See also the entirely new Josei Toda site, dedicated to the 2nd President of the Soka Gakkai and mentor of SGI President Daisaku Ikeda for whom a similar site was created earlier this year.
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Perception, some say, is reality. It comports well with Buddhism. If you view things with the Buddha’s eye, however, your perception will be clearer. What I mean by that is that by making more explicit the link between one’s values and one’s behavior, perception will be positively influenced. For example, in the case of the [...]
“Never underestimate yourself. Human beings have unlimited potential.” Much of the time they are inane, but now and then they hit the spot with insight. I wonder if there is an untapped market for fortune cookie writing. Probably doesn’t pay as well as greeting cards. Anyway, from the Buddhist perspective, the only limits to one’s [...]